A really approachable and informative non-fiction picture book that I think has a wide grade-range of appeal.  The illustrations are cartoonish enough to be inviting, but still do a good job of providing the reader with a visual context for the time period.  The text is written with a chatty voice that makes it approachable for both the curious elementary student who has heard of this Shakespeare guy right through to the high school student reluctantly struggling through a Shakespeare class.  The book is designed so that the paragraphs on the left of each two-page spread describes the life and times of the great playwright, bolding specific words which were used by the bard himself.  On the right is an inset providing the definitions of these bolded words and phrases still common today, while also linking them to the original Shakespearean usage.